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Five things the Cowboys' offense needs to fix
11:10 AM ET
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett spent so much time over the years tailoring the offense to Tony Romo's unique skill set that we found out this season it didn't work nearly as well without him.
Obviously, some of that can be contributed to Romo being a superior quarterback to Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel and Kellen Moore. He's spent eight seasons in this offense and does a terrific job of getting the Dallas Cowboys into the right play whether it’s changing from a run to a pass or changing one run play to another.
But Romo’s greatest gift is his ability to create big plays from chaos by moving in the pocket and extending plays. That said, the Cowboys can't have an offense that ceases to function any time the soon to be 36-year-old quarterback gets hurt.
After all, he’s started 16 games just twice since 2009.
Here’s a look at five things that went wrong with the Cowboys’ offense and how Garrett and play-caller Scott Linehan can fix them:
Creativity rules
The problem: Any time you ask Garrett about the Cowboys’ offense, he’ll talk about its ability to attack a defense in a lot of different ways. The Cowboys do that by having the quarterback read the defense and attack the mismatch.
The issue, of course, is when no mismatch exists. When Dez Bryant missed five games with a broken toe, the Cowboys simply couldn’t take advantage of perceived mismatches with Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley. And when Bryant returned, he caught only 31 of 72 passes thrown his way, so he didn’t take advantage of mismatches, either.
How to fix it: Instead of relying so much on their players to win one-on-one battles, Garrett and the coaching staff need to do a better job of using rub routes -- pick plays -- and bunch sets to get their receivers open if they can’t do it by themselves. The Cowboys scored 259 points -- their lowest total since 2002 -- and finished 29th in the NFL.
Touchdowns instead of field goals in the red zone
The problem: The Cowboys scored only 20 touchdowns in 45 trips inside their opponents’ 20-yard line, which tied them for 29th in the NFL. Kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns meant the Cowboys rarely built leads that forced their opponents to panic. The field goals also kept the Cowboys from separating from their opponents, which is among the reasons they lost seven games where they were leading or tied in the fourth quarter.
How to fix it: Romo throwing a fade to Bryant against man-to-man coverage is a great play when they’re each healthy. When injuries robbed the Cowboys of that play, Garrett and Linehan did a poor job of coming up with a different approach. They should use more play-action passes on first down since they’re such a run-heavy team. Or they should use more motion to create matchups they want to exploit. There are a lot of ways to scheme players open in the red zone but Dallas rarely, if ever, did it.
More big plays
The problem: With Romo out, it was pretty clear Weeden and Cassel were coached to be conservative and limit their downfield throws. Well, virtually all of the NFL’s newest rules are designed to help the passing game. Bryant has averaged 12 catches of 25 yards or more each of the past three seasons; he had two this season. Without the big plays, the Cowboys needed to go on long drives to score touchdowns and they weren’t good enough to consistently do that.
How to fix it: Romo’s return will help because he’s not afraid to throw deep. The Cowboys must also do a better job of getting big plays from the slot whether it’s Beasley or Bryant, when they’re matched up against safeties. The routes from the slot don’t have to be quick out or option routes, they can go vertical.
Get physical
The problem: The Cowboys converted just 8 of 19 third-and-1 situations, the league’s worst conversion rate. That’s awful for a team with three members on its offensive line named second-team All-Pro. They must do a better job controlling the line of scrimmage and the Cowboys’ runners must do a better job of running decisively.
How to fix it: The Cowboys should draft a running back in the first three rounds, and if they get the physical one-cut runner this offense craves then that alone might spur the necessary improvement. If not, the Cowboys will need to spend training camp focusing on pad leverage and explosion and all of the detailed things that allow offensive linemen to move defensive players at the point of attack.
Stop the penalties
The problem: More than half of the Cowboys’ 56 offensive penalties were for illegal procedure, which is ridiculous. The Cowboys were penalized for illegal procedure 27 times -- only Oakland was penalized more. Doug Free (8) and Jason Witten (5) combined for nearly half of those.
How to fix it: At one level, you can understand why Free gets so many procedure penalties. He’s not as good as many of the defensive ends he faces, so he tries to get that tiny edge when the ball is snapped. As for Witten and Tyron Smith (4) it’s a matter of focus and concentration. For a team such as the Cowboys that wants to run the ball and control the clock, those five-yard penalties usually result in a long-yardage situations that wreck drives.
11:10 AM ET
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett spent so much time over the years tailoring the offense to Tony Romo's unique skill set that we found out this season it didn't work nearly as well without him.
Obviously, some of that can be contributed to Romo being a superior quarterback to Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel and Kellen Moore. He's spent eight seasons in this offense and does a terrific job of getting the Dallas Cowboys into the right play whether it’s changing from a run to a pass or changing one run play to another.
But Romo’s greatest gift is his ability to create big plays from chaos by moving in the pocket and extending plays. That said, the Cowboys can't have an offense that ceases to function any time the soon to be 36-year-old quarterback gets hurt.
After all, he’s started 16 games just twice since 2009.
Here’s a look at five things that went wrong with the Cowboys’ offense and how Garrett and play-caller Scott Linehan can fix them:
Creativity rules
The problem: Any time you ask Garrett about the Cowboys’ offense, he’ll talk about its ability to attack a defense in a lot of different ways. The Cowboys do that by having the quarterback read the defense and attack the mismatch.
The issue, of course, is when no mismatch exists. When Dez Bryant missed five games with a broken toe, the Cowboys simply couldn’t take advantage of perceived mismatches with Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley. And when Bryant returned, he caught only 31 of 72 passes thrown his way, so he didn’t take advantage of mismatches, either.
How to fix it: Instead of relying so much on their players to win one-on-one battles, Garrett and the coaching staff need to do a better job of using rub routes -- pick plays -- and bunch sets to get their receivers open if they can’t do it by themselves. The Cowboys scored 259 points -- their lowest total since 2002 -- and finished 29th in the NFL.
Touchdowns instead of field goals in the red zone
The problem: The Cowboys scored only 20 touchdowns in 45 trips inside their opponents’ 20-yard line, which tied them for 29th in the NFL. Kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns meant the Cowboys rarely built leads that forced their opponents to panic. The field goals also kept the Cowboys from separating from their opponents, which is among the reasons they lost seven games where they were leading or tied in the fourth quarter.
How to fix it: Romo throwing a fade to Bryant against man-to-man coverage is a great play when they’re each healthy. When injuries robbed the Cowboys of that play, Garrett and Linehan did a poor job of coming up with a different approach. They should use more play-action passes on first down since they’re such a run-heavy team. Or they should use more motion to create matchups they want to exploit. There are a lot of ways to scheme players open in the red zone but Dallas rarely, if ever, did it.
More big plays
The problem: With Romo out, it was pretty clear Weeden and Cassel were coached to be conservative and limit their downfield throws. Well, virtually all of the NFL’s newest rules are designed to help the passing game. Bryant has averaged 12 catches of 25 yards or more each of the past three seasons; he had two this season. Without the big plays, the Cowboys needed to go on long drives to score touchdowns and they weren’t good enough to consistently do that.
How to fix it: Romo’s return will help because he’s not afraid to throw deep. The Cowboys must also do a better job of getting big plays from the slot whether it’s Beasley or Bryant, when they’re matched up against safeties. The routes from the slot don’t have to be quick out or option routes, they can go vertical.
Get physical
The problem: The Cowboys converted just 8 of 19 third-and-1 situations, the league’s worst conversion rate. That’s awful for a team with three members on its offensive line named second-team All-Pro. They must do a better job controlling the line of scrimmage and the Cowboys’ runners must do a better job of running decisively.
How to fix it: The Cowboys should draft a running back in the first three rounds, and if they get the physical one-cut runner this offense craves then that alone might spur the necessary improvement. If not, the Cowboys will need to spend training camp focusing on pad leverage and explosion and all of the detailed things that allow offensive linemen to move defensive players at the point of attack.
Stop the penalties
The problem: More than half of the Cowboys’ 56 offensive penalties were for illegal procedure, which is ridiculous. The Cowboys were penalized for illegal procedure 27 times -- only Oakland was penalized more. Doug Free (8) and Jason Witten (5) combined for nearly half of those.
How to fix it: At one level, you can understand why Free gets so many procedure penalties. He’s not as good as many of the defensive ends he faces, so he tries to get that tiny edge when the ball is snapped. As for Witten and Tyron Smith (4) it’s a matter of focus and concentration. For a team such as the Cowboys that wants to run the ball and control the clock, those five-yard penalties usually result in a long-yardage situations that wreck drives.